Aaron Tang

Aaron Tang is acting-professor of law at the University of California, Davis. He is a former public school teacher, a graduate of Yale College and Stanford Law School, and a recent law clerk to Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the U.S. Supreme Court. Follow him on Twitter @AaronTangLaw.

(Karla Ann Cote/NurPhoto/Sipa USA via AP Images) Union activists and supporters rally in Foley Square in Manhattan on June 27, 2018. A s the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Lee Saunders does more for America’s working class families in one day than I have done in a lifetime. So when he writes an op-ed criticizing a legislative proposal that I and others have advanced to undo the devastating effects of the Supreme Court’s decision against public-sector unions in Janus v. AFSCME Council 31 , everyone—myself included—should pay serious attention. The proposal is known as direct reimbursement. To understand how it works, begin with the premise that unions produce, on average, a 17 percent wage premium for the workers they represent. Before Janus , workers received all 17 percent in their paychecks, but were required to send 2 percent to the union to support its collective bargaining–related costs. Janus held that this required payment...